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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

A to Z of Grave New World 2016: E is for Elsie

Welcome to a Grave New World, where humans rub shoulder to shoulder with the monsters from folklore.

E is for Elsie the Ohio River Monster.Sightings of Elsie go back to the Iroquois long before european settlers found the area and have always been especially prominent within several miles either direction of what is now Cincinnati, OH and Newport, KY. Elsie is believed to be a corrupted version of a an Iroquois word meaning "sprit serpent". She was officially added to the National Cryptid Repository in 1961 and was given special protected status in 1968, after several drunken mobsters in Newport unloaded two tommy guns at her.Elsie has been positively identified as a neoplesiosaur, a fairly common cryptid species that is extremely long lived and indigenous to lakes and rivers all over the world, including Loch Ness in Scotland and Lake Champlain in the Northeastern U.S. Cryptozoologists, still have numerous unanswered questions about the creatures, especially their ability to disappear, sometimes for decades. Dr. Ashon Lagat of Kenya has been studying the creatures for over thirty years and claims to have consulted a redcap named Tumult who says that the creatures have several spiritual qualities to them and that they transcend humanly's understanding of animals, in the much same way sasquatches do. While Dr. Lagat does not fully embrace Tumult's information, he has not ruled it out.Meanwhile, on a clear day, keep your eyes out for Elsie.